“THE JINGWEI BIRD” with Del Sol Quartetand The Last Hoisan Poets weaves music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry by Genny Limand Nellie Wong, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the nature around us.
TheCommunity Innovation Lab, a tech, sports and recreational programming hub for the Bayview-Hunters Point community, opened in October 2023. The Lab is an expansion of the park’s Tech Hub, which has offered free Wi-Fi access, laptop and tablet lending and technical support, and a variety of community services to neighborhood residents since 2021. https://ibwaterfrontparks.com/programs
The India Basin Waterfront Park project is guided by an Equitable Development Plan (EDP), a first for San Francisco. It ensures that the waterfront park will benefit current Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) residents while preserving the culture and identity of the historic neighborhood. It provides a blueprint for delivering a park designed by and for the community while improving economic opportunity and environmental health for its residents.
CATS has curated 6 highly-anticipated feature films, documentaries and shorts for the in-person screenings at the Sunnyvale AMC Dine-In Theatre on October 20-22, along with 70+ films to view online (on-demand from October 20-29) — a wide variety of films that will make you laugh, cry, and even learn more about AAPI cultures.
Announcing the premiere screening of “Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” at SVAPFF 2023!
“Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” is our first professionally produced film, and what an amazing journey it has been! We are grateful for the invaluable support provided by CATS and SVAPFF to create this special gift in celebration of Flo Oy Wong’s 85th birthday. We are so excited to see our short film on the big screen!
As the sixth daughter of Chinese immigrants living in Oakland’s Chinatown in the 1940s-1960s, FLO OY WONG was determined to break free of a life of pre-destined invisibility. She began her art career at the age of forty. Her poetry career started at seventy-five. Now eighty-five, her life comes full circle when The Community Rejuvenation Project proposes to paint a mural at 723 Webster, the former site of her family’s restaurant, The Great China. Flo’s beginnings in Oakland’s Chinatown come to life once more— this time through the eyes of another artist.
We’d like to thank the many people whose contributions helped to bring this short film to light.
Thanks to generous support from Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene, AARP, and Friends of CATS, we have been able to document Flo’s involvement in the 723 Webster Mural Project. We are so excited to share Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong with audiences at SVAPFF 2023 and beyond. Whether you made a donation to CATS, bought a ticket to the October 22 screening, or told a friend about the film, we are grateful for your support.
Thank you to William Wong and Nellie Wong, for sharing their insights on their sister’s “fighting spirit” and to Diana Argabrite, Director of the Euphrat Museum of Art for shining a light on Flo’s artistic legacy. We are most grateful to Ed Wong for his dedicated efforts to record and preserve Flo’s artwork over the years. What a truly wonderful moment it was when Ed found the set of archival slides documenting Flo’s Oakland Chinatown drawings, created between 1938 – 1991.
A mural-sized thank you to the 723 Webster Mural Project team: Muralist Desi Mundo of the Community Rejuvenation Project, Roy Chan, Director of the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project, Denise Chinn of 723 Webster Street and Jack Chen, owner of Imperial Soup in Oakland’s Chinatown. Their collaborative initiative on behalf of Oakland Chinatown is so inspiring! Please support Oakland Chinatown’s Legacy Businesses!
A deep bow of respect for the many artists who supported this project by generously sharing their creative contributions and light – Thanks to multimedia journalist Juan Carlos Guerrero; filmmaker/director Allie Light; musicians Kenneth Nash, Del Sol Quartet, and Marcus Shelby, who celebrated Flo’s 75th birthday with Gwah Gai: Crossing the Street in 2013 and crosses the street once again with his musical contribution in 2023!
A giant tip of the cap to our Director of Photography and Editor Chris Wong for his keen eye and steady camera! A big hug of forever gratitude to Leianne Wong Lamb for her encouragement and guidance throughout the entire film-making process.
We hope that this film conveys our collective love and respect for our dear friend Flo Oy Wong, who continues to have the courage to follow her creative impulses and the tenacity to realize her dreams. Through her art and poetry, Flo attends to the beauty in the every day; she finds dignity in the details. How lovely to behold Oakland Chinatown – past, present and future – through her eyes.
Co-presented by First Voice and the Presidio Theatre, Soul of The City by Brenda Wong Aoki, premieres with two performances at the Presidio Theatre on Saturday, September 30 at 4:00 pm and Sunday, October 1 at 4:00 pm.
In December of 2018, Upon receiving the Hewlett 50 award, Brenda noted, “The seismic shifts taking place in Japantown and Chinatown compel us to not only capture people and places before they are gone and forgotten, but to support our communities while they are under attack from gentrification, even as we make a work of art.”
Who would have predicted that the City’s performing artists would soon need to deal with a global pandemic?
Brenda Wong Aoki as The Storyteller, and devorah major as MOTHER. Photo by Mark Shigenaga.
A Journey to the Heart of San Francisco
“Soul of The City” is a new work by the nation’s first Asian American storyteller, Brenda Wong Aoki. Told through storytelling, multimedia, live music and dance, “Soul of The City” is a performance ritual for us all. Brenda tells true stories from the nation’s first Chinatown and Japantown based on her family’s 132-year history against the backdrop of today.
Soul of the City – In Creation (June 22, 2023 Lab Time at the Presidio Theatre). Photo by Terry Lorant.
“Soul of the City” is an allegorical story about the city of San Francisco and in particular, Brenda’s life spent living here. It is rooted in API history and looks at the soul of our beloved San Francisco, the birthplace of Asian America, through the sharing of personal stories and lineage. It also serves as a rallying call for the true citizens of the city to overcome all the doom and gloom and come together as a unified community to push back hatred of any group of people and to revive the soul of the city.
Based on many autobiographical stories of her mixed ethnic family tree, she follows how they all come to San Francisco and become a major part of the history of the City and follows her own path here as a performer, teacher, social activist and a proud long time San Franciscan. With the premise of a storyteller who feels she has no more stories to tell and being attacked for her Asian heritage, she hovers between life and death. With the appearance of the Mother (played by esteemed SF poet laureate devorah major) the storyteller is taken on a journey of self-discovery and decision.
The piece will be a moving and inspiring mix of spoken word, poetry, musical styles (featuring seven musicians representing jazz, taiko, koto, African percussion) and movement (drawing upon Asian theatre forms one will see influences such as Kabuki and Noh) and ultimately will hopefully have the audience reenergized and bring the soul of the City back to a newly vibrant state.
Prior to entering the theatre there will be events happening in the plaza outside where audience members will have the opportunity to write their own wishes and prayers to hang on the Tree of Life (a special ikebana installation) as well as be blessed and offer prayers for peace and in honor of the Ancestors.
Soul of The City Creative Team
Written by Brenda Wong Aoki. Directed by David Furumoto with musical direction by Masaru Koga. Original music by Mark Izu, Masaru Koga, and Derek Nakamoto. Multimedia by Andi Wong and Olivia Ting. Costumes by Lydia Tanji. Performers include Brenda Wong Aoki, Caroline Cabading, Masaru Koga, devorah major, Shoko Hikage, Jimi Nakagawa, and Kenneth Nash.
Music Director Mas Koga shares a special moment – Healing Ritual music by Mark Izu (sho) and Kenneth Nash (percussion). Music rehearsal, September 15, 2023.
Before the performance in the courtyard, the audience is invited to add their prayers, thoughts and wishes on the Soul of The City sacred tree. At the conclusion of the performance, we will return to the garden for refreshments, renewed, recharged and inspired to carry on.
Sacred Tree, photo by Mark Shigenaga
Be sure to pick up a copy of Mark Izu’s brand new CD, “Songs for J-Town,” at the show!
THE JINGWEI BIRD explores the complexity of climate change and our relationship to the planet through multi-disciplinary performances with Del Sol Quartetand The Last Hoisan Poets.
“THE JINGWEI BIRD” weaves brand-new music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the nature around us.
“THE JINGWEI BIRD” is a mythical creature that appears in the Shan-hai jing, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, a Chinese classic text (third century BC to second century AD) and compilation of mythic geography and beasts. The story of the Jingwei Bird involves Nüwa, a girl who is drowned and transformed into a bird, determined to fill up the sea one pebble at a time to protect others from perishing as she did. The story captures the importance of perseverance, even against seemingly impossible odds, and reminds us of our vital connection to the planet.
THE JINGWEI BIRD features poetry written and performed by Genny Lim & Nellie Wong of The Last Hoisan Poets.
Poets Nellie Wong, Genny Lim & Rumi. May 2022. Photo by Mark Shigenaga
Continuing the collaboration begun with The Angel Island Project, Chinese-American poets Genny Lim and Nellie Wongjoin the quartet to create this new program of music and poetry exploring themes of eco-futurism, climate change, and our relationship to the planet. By immersing audiences in the sound of the music, delicately woven together in conversation with the poetry, the artists acknowledge the importance of community storytelling and the sharing of cultural knowledge across generations.
THE JINGWEI BIRD music, by Asian-American composers who draw on their cultural heritage, will be curated and performed by the Del Sol Quartet.
Benjamin Kreith & Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violins; Charlton Lee, viola; Kathryn Bates, cello. Photo: AFW Productions.
Fascinated by the feedback loop between social change, technology, and artistic innovation, the San Francisco-based Del Sol Quartetis a leading force in 21st-century chamber music. They believe that live music can, and should, happen anywhere – whether introducing Ben Johnston’s microtonal Americana at the Library of Congress or in a canyon cave, taking Aeryn Santillan’s gun-violence memorial to the streets of the Mission District, or collaborating with Huang Ruo and the anonymous Chinese poets who carved their words into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Since 1992, Del Sol has commissioned and premiered thousands of new works.
FREE public performance – SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm; Seaplane Lagoon Promenade, 1801 Ferry Point, Alameda, CA
Presented in partnership with DOER Marine, a free outdoor performance by the Del Sol Quartet & The Last Hoisan Poets will be held at Seaplane Lagoon Promenade in Alameda on Saturday, August 19, 2023, from 1pm – 2pm.
Those attending the 8/19 Alameda performance were also invited to stop by the Deep Ocean Explorer Store, located at 650 W Tower Ave, Alameda, CA 94501, a short walk away from Seaplane Lagoon Promenade for a special pre-performance talk with artist Leon Sun and Liz Taylor of DOER Marine presented at 11:30am, with light refreshments to follow at Seaplane Lagoon Promenade picnic area #1, 12:30pm-1:00pm.
Based in Alameda, California, DOER Marine(Deep Ocean Exploration and Research) was founded in 1992 by Dr. Sylvia Earle as Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, a marine consulting firm. The company is now headed by her daughter, Liz Taylor along with subsea specialist Ian Griffith, who expanded the firm’s scope and capabilities to include ROV and submersible support services. DOER Marine committed to changing the way we think about oceans, and the creatures who call them home. Partnership with DOER Marine will support our project efforts to engage audiences in Alameda and San Francisco more deeply in thinking about their relationship with water, including our Bay and ocean.
The Jingwei Bird @ NEMS SF Chinatown PACE Center
FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm; NEMS Chinatown PACE Center, San Francisco, CA
North East Medical Services(NEMS) will host a performance on Friday, August 18, 2023 at their Chinatown PACE Center (Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) as part of promoting well-being and community for the elderly. NEMS is one of the largest community health centers in the United States targeting the medically underserved population. Based in San Francisco, the non-profit community health center offers comprehensive health care services to a variety of patients, a majority of whom are uninsured or low income. NEMS offers linguistically competent and culturally sensitive health care services in many languages and dialects, including English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Toishan, Vietnamese, Burmese, Korean, Spanish, and Hindi.
Leon Sun is a San Francisco based printmaker, photographer, painter, and writer. His art came out of the anti-war and social movements of the 1960s and 70s. He had always wanted his art to be socially relevant. Up until the 1990s he worked as photographer and graphic designer for Left publications while holding down various “day jobs.”
He first learned screenprinting in 1979 at the Japantown Art and Media (JAM) Workshop in San Francisco. He has printed continuously up to the current period. His work was based mostly in the Asian American Movement, but he has also contributed to international solidarity actions.
Around 2000 he began to relocate his art from political activism to spiritual practice. He took a break from the visual arts and began to teach himself landscape art. He spent three years building a garden informed by Buddhism, Asian and indigenous cultures. This experience did much to formulate a new orientation for his art. In 2013 Sun set up his own print studio and began to produce art that expresses his love for nature and concern for the environment.
Leon Sun was born 1948 in Shanghai, China, migrated to Hong Kong in 1957 and moved to the United States in 1966. He lives with his wife Karen and their dog Rocky in San Francisco and works out of his home. His work has been shown nationally and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Explore Terrastories: “JINGWEI’S JOURNEY”
Explore a world of sounds & stories gathered with The Jingwei Bird.
Explore Terrastories allows you to access the maps of communities who have chosen to make a selection of their stories public. We are grateful for Terrastories support of our collective exploration to discover and preserve the sounds & stories gathered on Jingwei’s Journey!
Terrastories are audiovisual recordings of place-based storytelling. This application enables local communities to locate and map their oral storytelling traditions about places of significant meaning or value to them.
Terrastories is entirely free and open-source, built with principles of offline-first and data sovereignty, and aligned with the following two UN Sustainable Development Goals:
These and other communities are nurturing Explore Terrastories as a new growing window to a diversity of place-based stories that they consider important to share and position in this shared map. As Rudo Kemper, founder of Terrastories explains,
“This is a way to visualize a different kind of traditional knowledge, which can be stories, poetry, and song. It is also about visibility and representation, with the ability to control what gets represented”.
We The Arts: Civic Engagement Through Artis an ArtsEd4All project taking place from June 17 – July 4, 2023, in celebration of Civic Season 2023.
From Juneteenth to the 4th of July, we invite you to participate in the third annual #CivicSeason through self-guided public art visits in San Francisco, as well as in-person and online events that invite civic engagement through the arts. We’re teaming up with hundreds of history museums and sites across the country through @HistoryMadeByUs, in partnership with the next generation shaping our democracy to launch a new tradition that makes room for all of our stories – and write the next chapter together.
FREE – Saturday, JUNE 17, 2 pm – 8 pm Healdsburg Plaza, Corner of Healdsburg Avenue and Matheson Street, Healdsburg CA.
Healdsburg Jazz Festival kicks off its 25th Anniversary Season with Juneteenth. Enjoy free music and arts & crafts workshops!
Healdsburg Jazz is proud to present a diverse range of music, art, culture and education in honor of this holiday, free to the public in the Healdsburg Plaza. Our Juneteenth performances celebrate the wide range of Black music and art including gospel, early blues, New Orleans jazz, funk, R&B, spoken word, and straight ahead modern swing.
FREE JUNETEENTH Celebration in the Healdsburg Plaza with the Charles McPherson Quintet featuring Terell Stafford, Randy Porter, Akira Tana, and Marcus Shelby, vocalist Martin Luther The Real McCoy, The Robin Hodge Williams Gospel Choir, MJ’s Brass Boppers, Healdsburg Jazz Poet Laureate Enid Pickett and KCSM’s Greg Bridges.
Educational Activities – Families and young people are invited to join ArtsEd4All in the plaza to learn more about Juneteenth and check out the exhibit celebrating 25 years of Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Fold a zine, make a flag, pinwheel, fan or decorate your own musical shaker at the art table. This year, the public is also invited to join teaching artist Amelie Anna Hinman for music workshops at 2:30 pm-3:00 pm and 4:30 pm-5:00 pm to play and learn about the origins of a variety of percussion instruments.
Imagining “TOMORROW” with DWeb Camp
The Internet Archiveis an American digital library with a mission to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. DWeb is a global network of builders and dreamers working to create a better, decentralized web. The goal of DWeb Camp is to create a collaborative space for people to connect, learn, share, and have fun as we work towards building a better, decentralized web.
At camp, Del Sol Quartet and composer Erika Oba conducted an open workshop demonstrating the give-and-take process that goes into creating and performing a new musical composition. Erika’s composition, “Behold the Sea,” is inspired by a story of friendship between two artists, Bill Zacha & Japanese artist Toshi Yoshida which resulted in a sister city relationship between Mendocino, California (USA) and Miasa, Nagano (Japan). Continuing the tradition, Erika and the Del Sol Quartet are using music to highlight the importance of building friendships and networks of community in order to protect the water and environment to help build a better world.
Composer Erika Oba invited DWeb campers to make music using stones in the dry bed of the Navarro River.
This plaque, dedicated in a community ceremony held on July 4th, 1982 reads, “The citizens of the sister cities of Mendocino, California and Miasa, Japan dedicate this plaque to the peaceful pursuits of the peoples of the Pacific Basin and to the protection of its environment that all living things there-in may exist in perpetual harmony.”
FREE on ZOOM – Thursday, JUNE 22, 12-1 pm PT | 3-4 pm ET.
This year at DWeb Camp, we’re tuning into the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s global webinar, Plastic-Free Seas: Diving Into How Plastic Impacts Health, Climate, and Our Oceans, on Thursday, June 22, 12-1 pm PT | 3-4 pm ET. On June 22, we will dive deep into the challenges that plastic pollution poses to our oceans and our bodies, how polluted waters disrupt the “Blue Mind” mental health benefits we gain from access to healthy oceans and waterways, and how we may restore our planet as well as our own physical and mental well-being.
DWeb Camp is using imaginative live action role play to dream of a better internet.
Build new networks and find your flow in Nature.
FREE – Saturday, JUNE 24 (or anytime, anywhere, as you please)
Technologists at DWeb Camp are hosting a LARP Worldbuilding session, using play to imagine how the Internet of Tomorrow might be transformed for the better. A LARP is a a live-action role-playing game in which a group of people enacts a fictional scenario (such as a fantasy adventure) in real time typically under the guidance of a facilitator or organizer.
Here are some ways to play along and join in the DWeb Camp experiment.
UNPLUG
– Take time out from the Internet and spend time recharging with a walk in nature. – Reflect upon your relationship with technology. Make a list of the ways that technology has changed your your life – for better and for worse. – What might be different? Are there aspects about your relationship with the Internet that you would like to change? “Think Different” was a slogan created for a 1997 ad campaignfor Apple.
– Design yourDWeb Alter Ego (with or without technology!)
“A Place for Poetry” with The Last Hoisan Poets
Anytime, in-person or virtual, FREE exploration of San Francisco public art
Take a poetry tour of the public spaces at the de Young Museum in San Francisco with The Last Hoisan Poets.
Write a poem with The Last Hoisan Poets.
Poets Genny Lim, Nellie Wong, and Flo Oy Wong — trace their roots to China’s Hoisan villages. They conduct special poetry readings in English and Hoisan-wa (a.k.a. the Toisanese/Taishanese Chinese dialect), to pay homage to their mother language which is at risk of fading from collective memory.
A Place for Poetry is a collection of poems by The Last Hoisan Poets inspired by the de Young Museum’s art and architecture. “One Eye” is a community poem begun by The Last Hoisan Poets, inspired by the sculpture of Ruth Asawa. The Last Hoisan Poets welcome poet of all ages and abilities to write a cinquain of their own. Listen toAsawa’s Gift to San Francisco, an audio tour sharing stories from the Asawa family. Take an ASL Tour of the Asawa sculpture installation the de Young Museum docent Jim Brune.
“When you put a seed in the ground, it doesn’t stop growing after eight hours. It keeps going every minute that it’s in the earth. We, too, need to keep growing every moment of every day that we are on this earth.” — Ruth Asawa
The book Your Brain on Art by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen shares that “neuroarts” is the transdisciplinary study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The Aesthetic Mindset Index is based on a research instrument called the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment or AReA,developed by Ed Vessel, cognitive neuroscientist and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany. The authors invite you to take the short survey, and then take it again in a month or two after you’ve had time to go out in the world and build your aesthetic mindset.
San Francisco is home to one of the largest and most diverse public art collections in the country. All city residents, workers and visitors have access to world-class art in everyday settings. Here are additional resources that will introduce you to some of the most engaging public art that San Francisco has to offer.
Join 400 cultural and civic institutions across the country for the third annual Civic Season, a new summer tradition for learning and action co-designed with Gen Z, the future inheritors of our democracy. Civic Seasonunites our oldest federal holiday with our newest, going beyond hot dogs and fireworks to invite meaningful reflection on our country’s past and our role in shaping its future.
The Last Hoisan Poets & Friends have been drawing inspiration from the de Young Museum, using poetry to reflect upon the sights and sounds of silence.
Read Poetry inspired by the de Young by the Last Hoisan Poets in the March 16, 2023 Stories article by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
In conjunction with the March 25th celebration of World Poetry Day with The Last Hoisan Poets & Friends at the de Young, poets of all ages and abilities are invited to write a short poem inspired by the work of two American artists – sculptor Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) and poet Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1915).
We welcome your participation!
Celebrate Women’s History Month 💗
Poetry in Motion: Participate in the creation of a community poem.
In 2005, artist Ruth Asawa donated 15 sculptures to the deYoung museum.
Write a cinquain inspired by Ruth Asawa’s looped wire sculptures.
Poet Adelaide Crapsey(1878-1915) is credited with invention of a new poetic form: the American cinquain. Her poems share a similarity with the Japanese tanka, another five-line form, in their focuses on imagery and the natural world.
“… these poems grew—flowers of a battlefield of the spirit.”
— Verse, Adelaide Crapsey’s first book of poems which includes 28 cinquains, was published posthumously in 1915.
Use this form to write your own poem about Ruth Asawa’s art.
Line 1 has two syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 2 has four syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 3 has six syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 4 has eight syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 5 has two syllables. ____________________________________________________________
If you wish to share your cinquain, please email your contribution to andi@artsed4all.blog. We will loop these short poems together to create a collaborative community poem.
Tyson and Genny, together under the Elk Antler Archin Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Our friend Tyson really enjoys plants and being outside in nature. He wanted to have the experience of planting and caring for a real tree, in conjunction with a special book project that he is working on with his grandmother. They are collaborating to write story of hope and compassion that involves the history of immigration to the United States through Angel Island.
Tyson and his Paw Paw are excited to collaborate on this story of love, gratitude, and healing that bridges generations, with help from the natural world. Thanks to a project mini-grant from Roots and Shoots USA, we were able to purchase a cherry tree, soil and planter, and give Tyson some money to buy art supplies that he needs to create the illustrations for his storybook.
In Genny and Tyson’s story, The Bird from Heaven, a boy cares for a bird named Tien-si.
Through this project, we certainly learned a lot more about cherry trees! Andi’s cousin Todd, who is also an Angel Island descendant, absorbed a lot of knowledge about planting vegetables and fruit trees, passed on from his grandparents who tended their home gardens. Todd shared some very important advice with us about cherry trees— we would certainly need to purchase a second tree, if we wanted fruit in the future, because most sweet cherry trees do not self-pollinate without the help of honeybees. Jan suggested that we go to Green Acres in Elk Grove to look for some nice trees. Since we knew that Tyson would like to enjoy cherries with his friends, we purchased two trees – one cherry tree is a Bing; the other is a Lapin. Tracy, who works at Green Acres, offered Tyson some great tips on how to plant and care for his new cherry trees.
We hope that Tracy’s advice can help others who might like to plant a cherry tree!Tyson’s new trees, Bing & Lapin, fresh art created with brand new ParKoo markers.
Good for All: Roots & Shoots Celebration 2023
When Dr. Jane Goodall came to the Oakland Zoo for the Good for All Roots & Shoots Celebrationon Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, there was time after her remarks for a Q & A session hosted by April Z, a freshman at UC Berkeley. We recorded the response to our question, “Do you have a favorite myth or story that you heard as a child, that you would like to share with future generations?” Of course, Dr. Jane wanted to share what she learned from animals, saying of her dog Rusty, “I think he was sent to teach me” because Rusty didn’t actually belong to her family, but lived in a hotel around the corner. “Out of nowhere comes… the most amazing intelligent dog that I’ve ever known.” The young protagonist in Tyson & Genny’s story finds an injured golden finch, which the boy names “Tien-si,” which means “Angel” in Chinese. The boy and the bird become friends on Angel Island.
Dr. Jane also answered a wonderful question from the 5th graders and their teacher Carol at San Dominico School asked “What student activism has made an impact on you? What story has stayed in your mind and your heart?” She responded with a moving story, about planting trees for the future, involving the first group of Roots and Shoots started in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Good for All: Roots & Shoots Celebration Q & A with Dr. Jane Goodall and April Z.
National Angel Island Day 2023 at the de Young Museum
In the coming weeks, Tyson will be picking out a few of his illustrations to share in a special pop-up exhibiton created for National Angel Island Day at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. In 2010, former president Barack Obama proclaimed January 21 as National Angel Island Day, calling upon the people of the United States to “learn more about the history of Angel Island and to observe this anniversary with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”
On January 21, 2023, the de Young Museum, Angel Island Immigration Station and UC Berkeley’s Future Histories Lab present a special free Saturday program, “Echoes from Angel Island” with The Last Hoisan Poets & Del Sol Quartet, dedicated to the ancestors and descendants of Angel Island immigrants. We invite the public to join us to learn more about Angel Island history through poetry, music and art, including Tyson’s illustrations for “The Bird from Heaven,” a story written by his grandmother, poet Genny Lim.
For the 2023 National Angel Island Day program, Genny will read her poem, The Journey, which closed Del Sol Quartet & The Last Hoisan Poets virtual presentation of Angel Island Insightfor APICC’s United States of Asian America Festival 2021.
“The Journey” was originally written and performed as the concluding poem for Lenora Lee Dance’s Within These Walls, an integrated, multi-media contemporary dance project performed at the Angel Island Island Immigration Station in 2017.
Within These Walls, choreographed by Lenora Lee Dance, performed by the Berkeley Dance Project, directed by SanSan Kwan, will be presented at the Zellerbach Playhouse from February 23-26, 2023, in conjunction with UC Berkeley’s Arts + Design Initiative and Future Histories Lab’s project, A Year on Angel Island,
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit http://www.calhum.org
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ANGEL ISLAND: IN SIGHT 2021 at the Angel Island Immigration Station is made possible with support from North East Medical Services (NEMS). https://www.nems.org/
Every year on 10 December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day, the very day when, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR consists of a preamble and 30 articles that set out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all of us, everywhere around the world, are entitled. It guarantees our rights without distinction of nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, religion, language, or any other status.
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: JOY is a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a master class in how to create joy in a world that was never easy for them. They offer neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy, despite circumstances.
To access the screening room, use the link in the box below:
Click “Register” and enter your email address and the event invitation code MJA-AE4A. You can return as many times as you like during the screening window by clicking “Event Login” and entering the same email address and invitation code. If you have trouble registering, please see the FAQ section within the screening room.
Inspired by New York Times bestseller The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, the film showcases the exchange between these two Nobel Peace Prize winners that led to that book.
Consisting largely of never-before-seen footage shot over 5 days at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, the film invites viewers to join these luminaries behind the scenes as they recount stories from their lives, each having lived through periods of incredible difficulty and strife.
With genuine affection, mutual respect and a healthy dose of teasing, these unlikely friends impart lessons gleaned from lived experience, ancient traditions, and the latest cutting-edge science regarding how to live with joy in the face of all of life’s challenges from the extraordinary to the mundane. Mission: Joy is an antidote for the times.
Just 7 minutes a day for 7 days to create more JOY for yourself: The Mission: JOY Team worked with top researchers from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, Harvard and 14 other universities to identify micro-actions–called Acts of JOY–that we can each do to create more JOY for ourselves in the moment. They’re quick, easy, and can be done by anyone of any age anywhere.
Sign up here and try out one Act of JOY a day, and at the end of 7 days, you’ll receive a free, individualized JOY Report that will show you which Acts were most beneficial for you. You will also be part of the world’s largest-ever citizen science project on JOY, helping scientists unlock the next level of discovery about how we can all feel more JOY!
“Joy manifests in human rights victories, the fighting for a just cause, and in the songs and artwork of social protest. Joy is transgressive of current conditions, and a force to bring people together to realize our potentials.”
The Del Sol Quartet brought The Joy Project to DWeb Campat Camp Navarro, Mendocino, where a globally diverse community of builders and dreamers gathered in nature to tackle the real world challenges facing the web and to co-create the decentralized technologies of the future. The quartet plays Sam Weiser’s composition, Let Joy Wash Over Youas You Fall Asleep, and campers are invited by composer Erika Oba to gather rocks from the dry riverbed to create a soundscape together.
Scenes from DWeb Camp 2022, Del Sol Quartet #3 by Paul d’Aoust, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons License
Del Sol has commissioned a body of short musical works written to give joy. As a gift to the community during these times, they are performing these pieces in numerous free concerts at public settings around the Bay Area — parks, schoolyards, open-spaces — where people can soak up some musical “joy” while safely practicing social distancing in the open air.
Sign up onDel Sol’s “Joy List” for the latest information regarding future performances.
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks explores the power of images in advancing racial, economic, and social equality as seen through the lens of Gordon Parks, one of America’s most trailblazing artists, and the generation of young photographers, filmmakers, and activists he inspired.
Directed by John Maggio; Produced by Monica Berra, Richard Lowe, George Kunhardt, Teddy Kunhardt, Matthew Henderson; Executive Produced by Alicia Keys, Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Jelani Cobb, Jacqueline Glover, Peter Kunhardt, Sr., Peter Kunhardt, Jr.
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks explores the enduring legacy of photographer, writer, composer, activist, and filmmaker Gordon Parks, and spotlights his visionary work and its impact on artists working today. Gordon’s legacy comes to life through three contemporary photographers: Devin Allen, whose photograph Baltimore Uprising of the 2015 Freddie Gray protests was featured on the cover of Time magazine; LaToya Ruby Frazier who for five years documented the Flint, Michigan water crisis and in 2020 photographed Breonna Taylor’s family for Vanity Fair; and Jamel Shabazz, whose New York City photographs of individuals and groups form a visual history of cultural shifts and struggles across the city. The film celebrates the power of images in advancing racial, economic, and social equality as seen through the lens of Gordon Parks, one of America’s most trailblazing artists, and the generation of young photographers, filmmakers, and activists he inspired.
“There’s another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on, you know.” — Gordon Parks
The Kunhardt Film Foundation has created free Educator Resources to accompany the film, including lesson plans and interview archives and photo archive to accompany the film. A discussion guide and six lessons supports creative and dynamic conversation about Gordon Parks and the ways his trailblazing work continues to inspire photographers and filmmakers today. Adult learners, high school and college classrooms, museum programs, and youth art organizations will find dynamic and robust resources.
The Gordon Parks Foundation permanently preserves the work of Gordon Parks, makes it available to the public through exhibitions, books, and electronic media and supports artistic and educational activities that advance what Gordon described as “the common search for a better life and a better world.”
From Juneteenth to the 4th of July, we invite you to participate in the second annual #CivicSeason through self-guided public art visits in San Francisco, as well as in-person and online events that invite civic engagement through the arts. We’re teaming up with hundreds of history museums and sites across the country through @HistoryMadeByUs, in partnership with the next generation shaping our democracy to launch a new tradition that makes room for all of our stories – and write the next chapter together.
Mendell Morgan, the public library director, thought about closing on Wednesday, out of respect for those who’d lost their children. Ultimately he decided to keep the library open. He wanted to show his community what, in his view, a library really is.
Every Wednesday at El Progreso Memorial Library in Uvalde, the children’s librarian, Mrs. Martha Carreon usually does story time for young children, but she didn’t know if she could do it that day. “I felt like it was going to be too much to look at those little faces. I didn’t think I would be able to bear it.”
About 24 hours later, Carreon stood in front of a group of 10 smiling faces, struggling not to cry as the children giggled and sang along with her.
600 Books of Hope for The Children of Uvalde
Carreon’s wish to create a safe space for children and community after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, inspired @pinatadirector, children’s book author e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, founder of the nonprofit Never Counted Out, to organize a book drive called 600 Books of Hope.
“600 Books of Hope is an opportunity for us as a community of artists and writers, along with the companies that publish us, to embrace the children of Robb Elementary School. My goal is to collect a minimum of 600 books of hope which would ensure that every child there would receive one book. One tangible thing they can take with them that might shine a ray of promise in their unbearable darkness. My ideal goal is to collect an additional 1,300 books to gift to the town’s remaining K-6 schools: Anton Elementary, Benson Elementary, Dalton Elementary, and Sacred Heart, knowing they too suffer the consequences. This would allow for every grade school kid in Uvalde to have at least one book, one token of hope to grab onto.”
We sent a note to e.E. to find out how to best participate and received this email in response.
Thank you for reaching out. I am so grateful to our community of librarians, authors, illustrators, and publishers who are showing up for the kids of Uvalde. People across America, Canada, and elsewhere have messaged, making this goal achievable. It’s truly a beautiful thing…
… In a time where we can feel powerless and overwhelmed, we as a community are shining the light of what we do into the hearts of those we create for. By doing that, we are giving these children a safe place to be held. To feel seen. To feel hope. I am so grateful to you for that.
ArtsEd4All 